The group dependency is used to construct groups of packages.
The group dependency ignores the version specified. Any version of the named package satisfies this dependency.
The named package is required unless the package has been the object of one of the following actions:
The package has been placed on the avoid list. See the pkg(1) man page for information about the avoid list.
The package has been rejected with pkg install --reject.
The package has been uninstalled with pkg uninstall.
These three options enable administrators to deselect packages that are the subject of a group dependency. If any of these three options has been used, IPS will not reinstall the package during an update unless the package was subsequently required by another dependency. If the new dependency is removed by another subsequent operation, then the package is uninstalled again.
A good example of how to use these dependencies is to construct packages containing group dependencies on packages that are needed for typical uses of a system. Some examples might be solaris-large-server, solaris-desktop, or developer-gnu. Oracle Solaris Group Packages shows a set of Oracle Solaris packages that deliver group dependencies.
Installing group packages provides confidence that over subsequent updates to newer versions of the OS, the appropriate packages will be added to the system.
An example group dependency is:
depend fmri=package/pkg type=group